God is, of course, a judge. I think, however, that un-taught Christians often do not understand the ways (ways, not "way") "judge" and "judgement" etc. are used in the word. It even says the righteous "judge the fatherless". Scripture's use of the word is nuanced...in a way english typically isn't, and it requires good teaching and prayer to come to understanding that, and what those different nuances are.
God is a just judge, mind you, for he knows not only actions, but even the hearts of men; and He judges with righteous judgment without fail. Jesus actually uses a command to us to "judge", but he says "judge with righteous judgment"; and unlike God we do not determine men's fates, only declare the judgments God has already declared: and given men warning of.
It is God says that he will punish unrighteousness; and that blood is required to wash away sin. The animal sacrifices...only covered it; Christ's washes it away. Jesus said that few find the way to life (and it isn't talking about "your best life now" or some way of living: he's talking about himself, personally). The narrow road, remember?
But here's an important part that gets missed. We're not "little saviors". Does the world need to hear the gospel preached unadulterated, with a Christ that's no other, and not twisted, yes. But what did Christ say the world would do toward His sheep? Hate them. Persecute them. And etc...GCM takes any criticism as that persecution (when it happens to be coming from Christians...) and then preaches we're to be a friend to the world. And supposedly this is our witness, in GCM's system.
And we're not to live solely to be witnesses...a Christian who lives for the worship of God (this does not mean making music and dancing around...though those are good praise) in EVERYTHING...as we're commended, will naturally by the GRACE of God's Holy Spirit, and the indwelling of Christ, according to knowledge and Truth (His word): be a witness. And they won't deny Him, either, nor fail, I think, to profess Jesus: the real Jesus, not the many the world wants to fabricate.
It's not our task to build the Church; we do have duties, but as Jesus said, to those who love the Lord, His commands are not burdensome. They're a joy. All the "Church Growth", "Seeker Sensitive", "Small groups", and so on...is about men building a church, but not Christ's church. I'd venture to say Christ's Church is very small.
And God is unforgiving: sin demands penalty; however he's the God who said "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" to those who skewed his judgment to make themselves a works-righteousness. God has forgiven those that believed...at a cost He paid. He doesn't, however, fail to say that those that don't are "condemned already".
Leaving either of those parts out...leaves the counsel of God incomplete and twisted. Here's another example. Rick Warren wrote "The Purpose Driven Church/Life" books. In the second (...Life) he quotes the New Living Translation (a poor paraphrase):
“The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them” (Proverbs 18:15).
But here's the whole translation:
“The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.”
How many times did people hear about not being too into getting knowledge, in GCM? Where the pastors said it was selfish to want to be Bible Scholars (which I rarely ever saw people attempt...they just wanted the food God prepared for them; besides, it says "study thyself approved, a workman unto the Lord, rightly dividing the word of Truth, so that you will not be ashamed") in order to push people away from study the word too much. Then another pastor would come along saying the a chapter a day wasn't enough...hours a day wasn't enough. No wonder some people who left have hatred: they've been thoroughly messed with.
Here's another scripture Rick wrests:
"The Lord has made everything for his own purposes." (Proverbs 16:4, NLT)
And here's the full quote from the NLT:
“The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for punishment.”
And here's it from the KJV:
“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil”
and the NASB:
“The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
and this is one (of many) non-biblical wolfish influences from which GCM directly draws teachings and often whole books of materials, forms, "commitment" agreements...which incidently the PD Church books says one of the purposes of that covenant is to determine what kind of people will stay at "your" church or go: but Jesus said not to take oaths, and James 5:12 says not to "above all else" so that you will not fall into condemnation: those "commitments" (covenants) are especially made so that you will when you cross their own agenda for the "church". What's troubling is that GCM teaches in the same style as Warren...wresting scripture, and falsely.
I think GCM has a serious problem whereby enthusiasm they preach a lot of nonsense, and not enough gospel, and often a false one depending on the current "christian" fad (like the PD models the group has so thoroughly imbibed), and then create attendants, enthusiastic participants, but not converts; and these people will be not only deceived, but being unborn, heavily burdened. It's like causing an abortion before they have a chance to really hear Christ. These people are the ones twice the child of hell, just as the Pharisees made, and I really mourn for them. They're not bidden to "come in".
Then there's the Christians there who are simply burdened by twisting, meat when they never got real milk, or hurt because the teaching comes down to saying "save the world" when we cannot; that's why CHRIST must be preached. And the Church doesn't exist to save the world, but to call-out the "elect", or "the chosen", according to the Word. GCM wants to make the Church Mars Hill, rather than going there and calling people away from that spiritually dead place. You notice that when Paul was there he didn't "build bridges", but rather used their culture, NOT for praising it, or to show how beautiful humanity was, but when you read close you find Paul undermining and exposing to the Greeks how futile their "culture" and ideas are: and then proclaiming the glory of Jesus Christ. GCM, and many groups like it, don't get this: and they twist that verse. No wonder the people he (Paul) preached to would hate and attack him; yet GCM wants us to all have a nice little dialogue and at the end have the hearers say "oh how soft-spoken and gentle he was"!, well, depending on which pastor it is: others want the "how cool" or to use offense to attract crowds, rather than simply preaching the offense. Reminds me of Tom Short holding up a sign about how scientists made monkeys of themselves with evolution.
And here's something I think you might agree with. Instead of preaching to be a witness to Christ, they preach to witness by being cool (a friend) to the world: and how fun it is, how "christ" has made your life better (but really it's something anyone can do: I can go to the bars, rock-climb, mountain bike, slack-line, bbq, throw a big park party with food, and do a bunch of fun but spiritually empty activities too, all on my own, with Christians or not, but don't hear the word there: which the world cannot compete with). They need to preach the Word of God that the Father may wash and sanctify the sheep just like Jesus prayed for them (John 17). They need to preach holiness yes, but not works-holiness devoid of the neglected Holy Spirit subject to fear of men, rather than of God; if GCM really believed in holiness they'd be kicking-out unrepentant sinners just as the NT commands the Churches. But rather they preach that sinners aren't repenting because as christians they don't understand who they are; but in reality many "christians" show NONE of the marks given by the NT whereby we're to discern a person, and those people need to hear, JUST AS MUCH AS THE BELIEVERS, NOT who they are, but who Christ is: and that's involved teaching, but to the Christian it's also real food, and satisfying.
And then as God washes a newborn Christian, HE matures them. HE develops them spiritually, rather than "Spiritual Disciplines/formation" or "Contemplative Spirituality/prayer" "models" whereby people make themselves feel religious through adopted mysticism and paganistic practices. What did Jesus say to Peter, for instance? "Feed my sheep". What does the pastor do? (To "pasture" sheep actually means to feed them.) What did Jesus say man lived on? Not bread alone, but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
What ends up happening, that is sickening, is that with all the twisting, and all the burdening, they not only drive away hearers, but deceive some to stay; and they not only teach good, but because of twisting make it bad, and make those who realize "this is all wrong" think that even Scriptural things, that are good, are wrong by the association.
So when one asks, "are their spiritual consequences" here, or dangers: yes, very definitely. There is in any group or system that does anything like these things.
